Choral Ethics

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Albert Camus

Polly* and Paul* met when both were hired separately as section leaders for a famous chorus. (I won’t give a location, vague or otherwise, but can tell you it has been in existence for over a century.) They’ve been married three years and have sung with the chorus for five. Generally, they are happy with their gig. Both have not been happy recently and contacted me. It’s a slightly complicated reason, so bear with me while I try to explain.

Famous Chorus* is a highly auditioned and respected community chorus which sings with the local professional symphony and has its own concerts as well. With over 100 volunteer singers, there are eight section leaders, two for each voice part. With each vocal part consisting of 25 to 30 people, having two section leaders is important to keep tabs on what is happening within a section.

New volunteer singers audition twice a year, once during the summer and once in January before rehearsals begin for the spring and summer concerts. Once a volunteer singer auditions and is accepted, they are members until they are not able to sing a concert, then must re-audition. There are volunteer singers who have been members for 20 or even 30 years, not taking a concert off no matter what. Auditions have gotten harder. Vocal quirks and flaws are no longer tolerated for re-auditioners and this is the way those folks are weeded out of the chorus. Both Polly and Paul tell me there are singers in each of their sections who should not be singing any longer in a group such as Famous Chorus. They have wobbles or breath issues or typical aging vocal problems, including not being able to hear! But this isn’t really why they have contacted me.

Polly’s and Paul’s discontent started when Famous Chorus’s long-time music director retired last year, and then passed away during the summer. With his retirement, the Board began the search process. Four music director candidates were chosen, one for each of their scheduled concerts. The spring concert is usually a “bits and pieces” concert, the summer is a Pops concert, the fall concert is usually with the symphony and the winter concert is either Messiah or a typical winter holiday Mish-Mash. The spring concert and summer Pop’s concert were prepared by two of the MD candidates, with the fall and winter concerts being prepared by the last two. The local professional symphony decided to defer their annual collaboration until the new music director is chosen.

We pick up Polly’s and Paul’s story right now, after two rehearsal cycles and concerts. The spring concert was a bit strange, knowing their beloved music director was ill. The chorus seemed to be ambivalent about that candidate, didn’t always cooperate and was a bit unruly in rehearsal. The summer Pop’s concert, sung outside, was even more of a challenge with singers not practicing (fun music most could sight read), talking while other parts were being rehearsed and coming late to rehearsal. They don’t feel either of those candidates would have been a good fit for Famous Chorus but singers’ behavior didn’t help show either to their best advantage.

What prompted their contact of me was the atmosphere of rehearsals leading up to their fall concert. Rehearsals began the end of September for their mid-November concert, with the third MD candidate leading them. Behavior during rehearsals has deteriorated to such an extent one of their fellow section leaders left the room in tears! The section leaders are now wondering if they are now expected to be on “playground duty” in addition to leading sections musically. Many of the volunteer singers are furious they will not be singing the usual fall concert with the symphony and that has prompted some of the rowdiness in rehearsal.

Paul approached a Board member, asking if he could speak at their meeting last week. After he explained the problem, he was told the Board “has their backs.” Paul asked me what I thought that meant. I told him it means if the section leaders reprimand a singer in rehearsal, they will be supported, but I’m not sure!

This whole situation has occurred because Famous Chorus is in transition, without strong leadership. It is my understanding from Polly and Paul they do have an executive director. I wondered why they didn’t approach him. Didn’t he realize what was going on in rehearsal? Polly tells me he always refers them to the Board for those sorts of things.

I told Polly and Paul to sit tight. First, with a new, strong music director things should improve. And it’s probably time to rethink volunteer membership requirements, so they should certainly mention it to the new MD. Since they are encouraged to approach the Board, perhaps it’s time to mention their Executive Director’s lack of help during this transition.

*Name Withheld

  “You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.” Albert Camus

 Last week I wrote about one of my favorite YCMs (Young Church Musician). This week I’d like to introduce you to one of my favorite Older Church Musicians…maybe Experienced Church Musician is a better way of describing him!

Martin* and I have been friends forever. We met as undergrads and have been friends ever since. Early in our careers, we both served congregations in the same denomination; a mainline protestant one which follows the liturgical calendar quite closely. My position was music director and his was organist/choir director. At the time we were hired, both of our congregations had interim pastors.

We soon discovered from our interim pastors we would be expected to choose hymns. We floundered until my Interim lent me a wonderful resource; a handbook for musicians in the denomination with suggestions for hymns (with hymn numbers for various hymnal editions), anthems, organ preludes and postludes, and synopsis of scripture readings for each Sunday of A, B and C liturgical years. I was thrilled and bought my own copy and told Martin about it. He obtained a copy for himself. His Interim also agreed it was a wonderful resource.

We used it to choose hymns but also found it quite helpful as a jump-starter for choosing anthems. Those you of you who are church musicians, or have been church musicians, know sometimes we get “stuck” picking anthems, especially during Ordinary Time. This resource had all sorts of anthem suggestions; I usually was inspired by the hymn selections when I was stuck. Martin had a bigger job, with a bigger choir. The handbook often had anthem suggestions he could actually use. Our Interims knew we were using this handbook and saw nothing wrong with it and since it was published by the denomination, why would they?

My congregation called a new Pastor within nine months of me being hired and my hymn selecting days ended. It was truly a lot of work so I did not mind. I still used the resource to help me with anthem selection. The synopsis of scripture readings helped with other music selection as well. I discussed the handbook with our new Pastor and he was on board with me using it as a resource.

Martin’s Pastor was called about 18 months after he began his position. His new Pastor played the guitar and her husband was a professional clarinetist so she had definite ideas on music for worship. She was a great one for doing “spur of the moment” things in worship and if you knew Martin, you would know this didn’t sit well with him.

Martin’s Pastor was horrified, horrified, after learning he was using the handbook for hymn selection. Quickly, she decided to take over choosing hymns. But she still wasn’t happy he used it to select anthems when he needed inspiration. She got into the habit of making “requests” for choir anthems, not always in a timely manner. Then she complained when his 30 member choir couldn’t “go with the flow” when she wanted them to sing a complicated 8 voice anthem. She didn’t understand why it was such a problem to ask at the last minute.

Martin asked her why she didn’t like the handbook. She told him it was a lazy way of choosing music. He explained he only used it when he was stuck or needed inspiration, not all the time. She thought he should be able to choose music without a “canned resource.” After their conversation, she made it a habit to throw a curve ball about once a month. She always called it making a “request” of the choir. Martin felt she did this so he would not be able to use the handbook. Her requests never seemed like a request, more of a “this is what I want, if you don’t like it, too bad” kind of thing. He felt unsettled and always off-balance, never knowing what to expect or what would be expected of his choir. He didn’t mind requests, but did mind being expected to comply with little time or preparation. And if there is one thing Martin has always been, it is prepared.

Martin put up with this situation for about a year, and then found a bigger and better position in a different denomination. He has spent the last thirty years serving churches within it. And takes requests.

*Name Withheld

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” Oscar Wilde

Daniel,*one of my favorite Young Church Musicians (YCM), has had a great church job for about five years. On the edge of the suburban community of a large city, the church appreciates him, his musicianship and his ability to get the choir singing. He’s a wonderful organist and is encouraged to invite the local AGO to have recitals at their church once a year. Daniel feels at home and has few complaints. The church is economically healthy and he never has to worry about getting his paycheck on time. About once a month, Daniel agonizes and second guesses himself about the church job he had before this one. And knows it isn’t healthy.

The subject came up about this former position when I sent out my regular choral ethics email to a group of friends and colleagues. Daniel responded with a question about a “friend” but soon confessed it was about him. He wanted to know if there was anything he could have done differently. After hearing his story, I don’t think there was.

Daniel was in a post-graduate program and needed to find a substantial church job. He had been a choral accompanist for a church throughout undergrad and grad school and was paid considerably less than the choir master/organist. His organ teacher heard of a job near Daniel’s parents’ home, out in the country. The pay was quite considerable compared to what he was being paid, so Daniel applied, auditioned, was interviewed, and then got the position. Looking back, he knows there were all sorts of red flags.

When he was hired, he was told there were two things most important to the church; they wanted to purchase an organ and wanted their choir started up again. He was a real organist, had a choral background so they expected him to be able to do both. He was to play two services a Sunday with the weekly choir practice between the services so he would only have to come in once a week.

Within months of being hired, the church council decided to cut music from the early morning Sunday worship service. Of course, his salary was adjusted. The church building was over one hundred years old and never had an organ. The sanctuary was small, so it would have to be a very special type of organ to be retrofitted in the space. Daniel did the research required and got various prices for several possible options. A congregation member had a friend who was trying to sell his late mother’s parlor organ, so the organ committee trooped out to see it. It was a dreadful electronic thing and even though they would get it for “free,” it would take quite a bit of money to move and repair so it would be usable. All agreed it was not an option and the organ committee stalled.

The worst part was the choir. Their past church musician had not been an organist or choir director. It was more of a “sing along” choir than a choir and had dwindled to three people. Daniel begged and pleaded with those three to stay with him, gathered other former choristers and started with a choir of ten. He had to convince them to sing real anthems instead of the “happy/clappy” stuff they had been singing. The clergy had played cello in high school so felt qualified to tell him what to do. Then, possibly the piece de resistance; the music committee chair who sang in the choir, was a Negative Nancy, vocal enough to blurt out “we’re awful” before he could stop and correct them in rehearsal. He did get them to sound decent after almost two years, but it was like pulling teeth.

Daniel was miserable every time he walked into that church and started to look for other positions. After he had been there for almost two years, three weeks before having to give a significant recital, Daniel was called into the clergy’s office for a performance review. He was asked to submit a resignation letter. When he asked why he was being asked to leave, he was told he hadn’t arranged to get an organ for the congregation, the choir wasn’t what they thought it should be AND he hadn’t played “Kum Ba Yah” peppy enough that last Sunday. He was stunned and left right away, leaving quite a bit of his music in the sanctuary. It took three months to get most of it back since he was not allowed in the church.

He still agonizes about “Kum Ba Yah,” wondering if he would have played it faster it would have made a difference. I told him no, it would not. There is no pleasing some people. We try and we try and when we don’t please them, we assume it’s our fault. It’s not. After some hand holding, I think Daniel finally knows that too.

*Name Withheld

“When I wished to sing of love, it turned to sorrow. And when I wished to sing of sorrow, it was transformed for me into love.” Franz Schubert

 Shawna* emailed me about a week ago. She originally emailed me earlier this summer. We were “back and forthing” about a situation she found herself in and, suddenly, she found she was no longer in that situation. Things had resolved themselves without having to use any of my suggestions. And found herself in exactly the situation she wanted to be.

She is the director of a volunteer symphony chorus (as well as director of choruses at a university) connected with a professional symphony orchestra in the middle of nowhere (her words). This “nowhere” is in a western state, with the university town the largest for miles and as such, the cultural center for the area. The symphony chorus performs once a year with the symphony and has two or three stand-alone concerts, much like a typical community chorus. And is run like one as well, with their own board separate from the orchestra’s.

Shawna has been the symphony chorus director for almost fifteen years, beginning right around the time she was hired at the university. Her first ten years were delightful, with the past music director consulting her when choosing their yearly choral/symphony collaboration. They made some lovely music together until the orchestra’s board felt the organization had “out grown” that MD and did a nationwide search for a new director. Their new MD was young and talented and their board was incredible pleased to have snagged such an “up and comer.”

That new guy was, to quote Shawna, a real “piece of work.” For the past five years (the term length of the recently “resigned” music director) she had felt like little more than a score carrier during her work with the symphony. She was never consulted on choral works to be performed. As a result, there had been times the symphony chorus abilities have been misjudged. Always a trooper to get things done, Shawna brought in portions of her university choral ensembles to help out in those instances. Bringing in her students to help supplement (both personnel-wise and musicianship-wise) did not sit well with the chorus or their board.

Shawna was between the proverbial “rock and a hard place” because she could not approach Maestro Unapproachable with his attitude. Nor could she ask (she tried once) the orchestra board who wanted to please their Wunderkind conductor at any price, even sacrificing their symphony chorus. Her chorus board was irritated because she brought in the kids so they would look (and sound) good. Shawna could not win, no matter what. And then, about 18 months ago, Maestro Wonderful decided he was moving on.

She thought, surely, the orchestra’s board would consult her during the interview/audition process but no, they did not. In fact, no MD candidates asked to speak with her nor did any one of them program a choral work for their audition. The symphony chorus had three stand-alone concerts last year, which also ticked off her chorus. As part of the due diligence she promised her board, she attended each concert the MD candidates conducted. Members of the orchestra’s board did introduce her to each MD candidate but she was not encouraged to have any sort of private conversation with them.

After auditions were completed last May, the new Music Director’s name was announced. Shawna was happy because the person hired was her favorite of all the candidates and seems like a good fit for their orchestra and community. Her original emails to me began about that time, asking how best to approach the new MD with her programming concerns or even how best to broach the subject.

Turns out, Shawna was worried for nothing. The new MD just moved to the community because his wife grew up in the area and is thrilled to be “home.” She tells me as soon as the moving van pulled away he, literally, called her. He told her he attended one of the symphony chorus’s stand-alone concerts incognito to see what was what, and was quite pleased with what he heard. They’ve had coffee three times and have programmed choral works together for the next two years. She is so happy things have worked out but is also glad she planned for all eventualities.

*Name withheld